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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/29928636">Office Relations</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrysKrossZee/pseuds/KrysKrossZee'>KrysKrossZee</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Hollyoaks</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Co-workers, Love/Hate, M/M, Sexual Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2021-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-03-08</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-15 22:00:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,282</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/29928636</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/KrysKrossZee/pseuds/KrysKrossZee</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>James has never looked at Sami that way before, but an accidental touch changes that.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>James Nightingale/Sami Maalik</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>2</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>31 Days of Shipping Challenge - Spring 2021, Tropes and Fandoms 2021</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Office Relations</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Prompts used-</p><p>Tropes &amp; Fandoms: Co-workers</p><p>31 Days of Shipping: Your Hate-Sexy Ship</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>"Can you just stop breathing so loud?" James hadn't meant for the words to be uttered aloud but it had just happened and now he could feel the way in which Sami was glaring across the room at him. When James and Sami had agreed to become partners in the law firm, James had done so knowing that both Verity and Maxine were going to act as buffers - but for some reason today both of them were out of the office at the same time.</p><p> </p><p>"What was that?" Sami asked, the venom practically dripping off of his tongue as James shuffled the papers on his desk and tried to work out what he was meant to say to cover his own tracks.</p><p> </p><p>"Um." James realised that his words weren't exactly the most eloquent. "Would you believe me if I said the air conditioning is being too loud?"</p><p> </p><p>"If we had air conditioning, then maybe." Sami commented. James watched him get up from his desk out of the corner of his eye and head to the coffee machine which James had insisted they buy when James realised that they couldn't keep going to the Salon whenever they needed a fix as that always resulted in him having a conversation with his mother than felt even more draining every time they had it. He knew his mother was lonely - her only true friend worked long hours and Juliet was unfortunately still in juvie.</p><p> </p><p>"Well I'm sorry." James said as he laid the stack of papers back on his desk, allowing his eyes to flicker across to the clearly annoyed Sami. James had still not managed to figure out how the pair of them had managed to end up working together in the same office considering their history. James was the reason that Sami's father had ended up in jail, and Sami had put James himself there before. The thing was, as much as James didn't want to admit it, Sami was good at what he did, and even though he seemed to be obsessed with trying to bang Verity, the three of them made a good team.</p><p> </p><p>Sami didn't say anything in return and James knew that he wasn't at all convinced that he was sorry, which James realised probably had a lot to do with the way that he had apologised. He decided to shake it off, to leave Sami to stew, as he got to his own feet and grabbed his coat from the hook.</p><p> </p><p>"I'm going to grab lunch." He said to no-one in particular. He was sure that Sami didn't care where he went as long as he got out of his hair for a bit, which was why he had to do a double-take at the dark-haired man's next words.</p><p> </p><p>"I'll come with you."</p><p> </p><p>James turned around on his heel to face him, blinking a couple of times as he tried to figure out where he was hearing things or if the man was serious.</p><p> </p><p>"The Hutch?" James suggested when he could finally make himself talk again. They'd had lunch together many times before and the Hutch being owned by Verity's brother was mainly why they chose that particular restaurant, but they had never had lunch together without either Verity or Maxine - if not both of them.</p><p> </p><p>Sami nodded and the pair of them headed out.</p><p> </p><p>It started off like a normal lunch, they ordered their food which was as always exceptional, and they ordered a couple of drinks to go with it. James had imposed a rule on himself as of late and that was to not talk about work while on his lunch break. This, however, did not leave a lot of things that he could talk about with Sami. They didn't have a lot in common and this showed until they were two drinks in as it meant that they ended up sitting in near silence.</p><p> </p><p>It was Sami who spoke first, which made sense to James when he considered the fact that Sami was the one that had insisted that he come to lunch with him. Maybe the word insist was a bit too strong but when this lunch had ended up as one of the most awkward lunches that he had ever had to endure, it made total sense to James.</p><p> </p><p>"Pass the salt?"</p><p> </p><p>It wasn't much in the way of conversation, but it was a start and it meant that when James handed the salt to Sami, his skin grazed the other man's. James couldn't explain the feeling that appeared in the pit of his stomach at the touch of the other man. He figured that it must be because he hadn't been with another man since Jay had died, but that didn't mean that he liked the sensation at all. He snatched his hand away and instead gripped onto the edge of his seat.</p><p> </p><p>Sami was not the sort of person that he could be thinking about in this way at all. For starters they hated each other - they had always hated each other even when Sami was dating Ellie, before James knew who he was. That was the other reason that this man was off limits, Sami was his sister's ex. That was creepy on so many levels and he knew that Ellie wouldn't ever forgive him for letting his mind run away from him, let alone if he acted on the thoughts that were now insistent on popping into his head every five seconds as he tried his hardest not to let himself think about the way that his hand accidentally touching Sami's had made him feel.</p><p> </p><p>James coughed to clear his throat before he took another swig of his wine, hoping that the drink would somehow clear his head, even though he knew that wine was not at all known for clearing thoughts but rather for muddling them. Unfortunately for him, the clearing of his throat had apparently been code to Sami that he wanted to say something as his eyes were now fixed on James. Those amazing, deep brown eyes that before today James had somehow never noticed.</p><p> </p><p>The feeling in the pit of his stomach seemed to grow and he gave a shudder as he realised that there was no way around this. He was going to have to put some distance between himself and Sami until this feeling passed.</p><p> </p><p>"I think I'll take the afternoon off." He said with a short nod, deciding that he could use the time to look into Juliet's case just that little bit closer, and he was hopeful that Sami would realise that he wasn't just trying to bunk off.</p><p> </p><p>Sami didn't seem to argue with him anyway, though his expression was less than impressed as James set some money down on the table, leaving his meal half-eaten. His appetite had all but disappeared now anyway as his stomach did a million backflips. The best thing to do now was to head home and to maybe even take a cold shower before he started to go through all of the latest paperwork that he had received about Juliet's case, not that there was anything new that had come to light as of late. Victor had managed to all but disappear and that did not at all bode well for his kid sister.</p><p> </p><p>"Swing by the office later?" Sami called to James as he headed out of the food, but James barely even paused on his way to give Sami a nod. He couldn't not show his face, especially when Verity was sure to be there, and hopefully by then he would have put all these unsavoury thoughts out of his mind.</p><p> </p>
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